Discovery of deuterium
Descubrimiento del deuterio
- Date
- 1931 · confidence high
- Place
- Columbia University, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Harold Urey, with Ferdinand Brickwedde and George Murphy
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Harold Urey spectroscopically identified deuterium, the stable hydrogen isotope with an extra neutron, after concentrating liquid hydrogen by fractional distillation with Ferdinand Brickwedde. The finding earned him the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The physical concentration of liquid hydrogen was carried out at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., with Ferdinand Brickwedde; Urey analyzed the resulting spectrum at Columbia.
What it led to
- Heavy water as a nuclear reactor moderator
- Isotopic labeling in chemistry and biology
- The 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Urey